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Blank Earth
Blank Earth is the first book in the Blank Earth series by Todd Dawson-Cooper. Book Description In the rainy and rusted suburbs of Beacon Hill six troubled girls from different walks of life share two things in common; a run-down house they call home and a dream to escape the complexity and hostility of everyday life, struggling to free themselves from societal standards and expectations, hiding behind labels and facades from their growing doubts and insecurities; all the while becoming furthermore complacent with the mediocrity of their own lives. Influenced by the works of Lydia Lunch , Irvine Welsh and Hubert Selby Jr., Blank Earth serves as a gritty and unflinching look into the life of Ryley Summers, an eccentric and rebellious young girl looking to escape her childhood trauma through a life of cheap thrills and petty crime. At her side, her girlfriend, Alex Peterson, and roommates Jay Sanders, Dawn Anderson, Emily Kaufman and Ami Richards are each compelled by their own lust, rage and desires to indulge in an egotistical downward spiral of sex, drugs, alcohol and nihilism. Like a cigarette, their youthful care-free lifestyle burns away, grotesquely manifesting into a bleak gut-wrenching Freudian nightmare. Characters Characters confirmed to appear in Blank Earth are as follows: Main Characters * Ryley Summers (first appearance) * Alex Peterson (first appearance) * Jay Sanders (first appearance) * Dawn Anderson (first appearance; dies) * Ami Richards (first appearance; dies) * Emily Kaufman (first appearance) Supporting Characters * Karmina 'Karmin' Espinõsa (first appearance) * Kim Min-Ji (first appearance) * Liam Kendall (first appearance) * Jacob Delsin (first appearance) * Sophia Procter (first appearance) * Lucas Hamilton (first appearance) * Garcia Espinõsa (first appearance, dies) * Jill Taylor (first appearance) * Aaron Taylor (first appearance) * Eric Wilson (first appearance) * Olexander Dvorak (first appearance) Development The initial concept for what would eventually become Blank Earth was first conceived in the middle of 2015, but wouldn't actually enter into development until the latter months of that same year. At its very core, it began as a development upon -- then later a spiritual successor to -- an earlier psychological thriller/horror novel that Cooper had been working on, which although similar in overall mood and aesthetic, veered away from the final novel's gritty realism in favor of post-modern abstractionism influenced by popular media such as Silent Hill, Jacob’s Ladder. Donnie Darko, the works of David Lynch, and artists such as'' Francis Bacon'' and Lucien Freud. This marked a turning point for Cooper, who had -- at this point -- spent the past several years working on Apocalypse ''and similar works that followed a very typical Hollywood-action formula of storytelling and conflict and centred around themes such as zombie apocalypses and the multiverse, found himself growing ever more intrigued by the concept of the self-manifested demons character studies, unreliable narrators and an exploration into more obscene and controversial subject matter that Cooper believed better reflected the reality that he, and his peers, had grown and lived in. At its conception, this new book had no title, defined by only a short plot synopsis; the story was to follow a travelling motley crew of punk rock vagabonds who delivered their own brand of homicidal vigilante justice to greasy old politicians, wife beaters and rapists everywhere. Though that concept would be scrapped relatively quickly, the spirit of that original synopsis was essential in the character of Ryley Summers, even if the book itself makes a point to criticize and dismantle her way of thinking. : ''"It was clear from very early on that I wanted to treat Blank Earth as a more abstract and deconstructive piece of literature, to which things like theme, aesthetic, mood, atmosphere, tone, ambiance and character motivations were far more important than the overall “plot”. I really wanted Blank Earth to feel less like a cookie-cutter ‘story in three parts’ narrative and more like it was a snapshot or a recording of something that had happened and/or was happening in real life, that these characters were non-fictional and would maybe feel like old friends to the reader, even if they were perpetually flawed, morally inconsistent, and not always agreeable in their actions. That their choices were deliberately tied to their core desires and beliefs." ''- Todd Cooper, on the inception of Blank Earth.'' Over the remainder of the year, Cooper had dug his hands ever deeper into the world of film and literature, particularly in search of art that would reflect the innate themes and tonal mood that he had envisioned for'' Blank Earth.'' At this point, several various "scrap chapters" were written up as a playground for Cooper to explore translating those themes into written prose, with the character of Jacob Delsin ''being created and developed as a catch-all proxy for these themes. Unfortunately, it seemed that even when pulling from his own personal experiences of domestic abuse, poverty, sexual promiscuity, opiate addiction and alcoholism, Cooper could not seem to replicate the integrity and emotion he wished to convey into his written works without coming across as either preachy and dishonest or too docile and avoidant. Cooper realized that constructing Blank Earth and writing it, were two separate and equally difficult challenges that would require much effort, many rewrites, and a balance of determination with the correct state-of-mind. ''Blank Earth had to be both nuanced and subtle, yet, could not pull its punches, it had to be equally raw and in-your-face. it had to shock and offend mainstream readers sensibilities while also being thought-provoking and soon draw massive amounts of inspiration from dozens of newly discovered works, including but not limited to, Martin Scorcese's 1976 cinema classic Taxi Driver, Mary Ellen Mark's defining exposé Streetwise, Larry Clark and Harmonie Korine's jarring and controversial pseudo-documentary Kids, the prose and "litter-ature" of essential no-wave pioneer Lydia Lunch, and an endless number of written works by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Haunted, and Invisible Monsters), William S. Burroughs (Junky, Queer, and The Naked Lunch), Bret Easton Ellis (Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, and American Psycho), Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting, Glue, Filth and Maribou Stork Nightmares) and perhaps most influentially, Hubert Selby, Jr. (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Requiem For A Dream, The Room and The WIllow Tree).